Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/36

 220 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS It appears, from the evidence of contemporary writers, that In the last years of his life the acknowledged worth and .genius of Michael Angelo, his wide- spread fame, and his unblemished integrity, combined with his venerable age and the haughtiness and reserve of his deportment to invest him with a sort of princely dignity. It is recorded that, when he waited on Pope Julius III., to re- ceive his commands, the pontiff rose on his approach, seated him, in spite of his excuses, on his right hand, and while a crowd of cardinals, prelates, and ambassa- dors, were standing round at humble distance, carried on the conference as equal with equal. When the Grand Duke Cosmo was in Rome, in 1560, he visited Michael Angelo, uncovered in his presence, and stood with his hat in his hand while speaking to him ; but from the time when he made himself the tyrant of Florence he never could persuade Michael Angelo to visit, even for a day, his native city. The arrogance imputed to Michael Angelo seems rather to have arisen from a contempt for others than from any overweening opinion of himself. He was too proud to be vain. He had placed his standard of perfection so high, that to the latest hour of his life he considered himself as striving after that ideal excel- lence which had been revealed to him, but to which he conceived that others were blind or indifferent. In allusion to his own imperfections, he made a draw- ing, since become, famous, which represents an aged man in a go-cart, and under- neath the words " Ancora impara " (still learning). He continued to labor unremittingly, and with the same resolute energy of mind and purpose, till the gradual decay of his strength warned him of his ap- proaching end. He did not suffer from any particular malady, and his mind was strong and clear to the last. He died at Rome, on February 18, 1564, in the ninetieth year of his age. A few days before his death he dictated his will in these few simple words : " I bequeath my soul to God, my body to the earth, and my possessions to my nearest relations." His nephew, Leonardo Buonar- roti, who was his principal heir, by the orders of the Grand Duke Cosmo had his remains secretly conveyed out of Rome and brought to Florence ; they were with due honors deposited in the church of Santa Croce, under a costly monu- ment, on which we may see his noble bust surrounded by three very common- place and ill-executed statues, representing the arts in which he excelled — Paint- ing, Sculpture, and Architecture. They might have added Poetry, for Michael Angelo was so fine a poet that his productions would have given him fame, though he had never peopled the Sistine with his giant creations, nor "suspended the Pantheon in the air." The object to whom his poems are chiefly addressed, Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara, was the widow of the celebrated com- mander who overcame Francis I. at the battle of Pavia ; herself a poetess, and one of the most celebrated women of her time for beauty, talents, virtue, and piety. She died in 1 547.